Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1887-09-30

beach the canoe and scramble out on to
the round, inhospitable pebbles.
my word" called out Good, who was |
on the shore first. what an awful place; |
it's enough to give one a fit" And he |
laughed.
Instantly laundering voice took up his !
words. magnifying them a hundred times. |
"Gire one Il ft-hO! no. hoL::' "a fit, no. no. !
hOr' answered another voice in wild ac-
cents from far up the cliff; q 1T a fit f.
chimed in voice after voice-each finginG !
the words to and fro, with shouts of awful |
laughter, to the invisi e lips Of the other,
till the whole place echoed with the words, |
and with shrieks OF fendish merriment,
which at last ceased as suddenly as Jney
had begun.
Oh mon Dieur' yelled Alphonse, start
led quite out Of such self-command as be
possessed.
Mon DieW mon DicE mon Dicu'' the
Titanic echoes Numbered, shrieked, and
walled in every conceivable tone.
"Ah,7 said Umslopogaas, calmly, II
clearly perceive that devils live here. Well,
the place looks like it,
I tried to explain to him that the cause
Of all the hub-bub was a very remarkable
and interesting echo. but he would not be-
lieve it.
All" he said, Il know an echo when I
hear one. There was one lived opposite
my kr;tal in ZuluIand, and the Intombis
(maIdens) used To talk with it. But if
what we hear is Il full-grown echo, mine
al homo can ONLY hay" bann baby No,
no-they are devils up there. But don't
think much of them, though" he added,
taking a pinch of snuff They can copy
lr+ I--,s+ = d. to laa
able to talk on their own account, and they
dare not show their faces" and he relapsod
into silence, and apparently paid no fur
ther attention to such contemplate fiends
After this we found it necessary to keep
our conversation down to a whisper-for it
was really unbearable to have every word
one uttered tossed to and fro like a tennis
ball, as precipice called to precipice. But
even our whispers ran up the rocks in TnyS-
terious murmurs till at last they died away
in Iong-drawn signs Of sound. Echoes are
delightful and romantic things, but we had
more than enough Of them i'll that dreadful
gulf
As soon as we had settled ourselves q
little on the ground stones, we proceeded
to wash ourselves aud dress our burns as
well as we could. AS we had but little oil
for the lantern we could not spare any for
this purpose, so we skinned one Of the
swans and used the fat off its breast, which
proved an excellent substitute. Then we
repackcd the canoe, and finally proceeded
to take some food, of which [ need scarcely
say we were i'll need, for iuscnsibility had
endured for many I-purS, and it WAS. az
our watches showed, midday. According
~ we seated ourselves in Il circle, and were
soon engaged in discussing our cold meat
which, in my case, at any rate, was not
much, as | felt sick and faint after my suf-
fcrings of the previous night and had, be
sides, Il racking headache 1t was Il curl
GUS meal. The gloom was 81 intense that
we could scarcely see the way to cut or
food and convey it to our mouths. Still
we got on pretty well, although the meat
was tainted by the heat through which it
had passed, till happened to look behind
me-my attention being attracted by a
noise Of something crawling over the stones
and perceived, sitting upon q rock in my
immediate rear, n hugo species Of black
freSh-water crab, only it was five times the
size Of any crab | ever saw. This hidcOus
and loatEsomc looking animal had pro
jeCting eyes that seemed to glare ut ono,
very long and flexible antennip, or feelCrs,
and gigantic claws. Nor was | especially
favored with its company. From every
quarter, dozens of these hOrrid bruteS were
creeping up, drawn, l suppose, by the
smell Of the food from between the round
stones and out of holes in the prccipCc.
Some were already quite close to us. !
stared, quite fascinated by the unusual
sight; and as | did So l saw one of the
beasts stretch out its huge claw and give
the unsuspeCting Good such a nip behind
that he jumped up with a howl, and set
the wild echoes flying in sober earnest.
Just then, too, another, a very large one,
got hold of AlphOnse's leg and declined to
part with it, and, as may be imagined, n
considerable scene ensued. Umsl0pogaas
took his aX and cracked the she'll of one
with the fiat of il, whereon ii set up Il hor-
rid sort OF screaming which the echoes
multiplied Il thousand fold. and began to
foam at the mouth, Il proceeding that drew
hundreds more of its friends out of I'M
suspected holes and corners. Those on
the spot, pcrceiving that the animal was
hurt, fell upon it like creditors on bank
r1pt, and literally rent it limb from limb
with their huge pinccrs and devoured it,
using their claws to convey the fragments
to their mouths. Selling whatever wcap-
ons were handy, such as stones or paddles,
we commenced war upon the monsters
whose numbers were increasing by leaps
and bounds, and whose stencil was over
towering. So fast as we cracked their
armor, others seized the injured ones and
dcvOurcd them, fOaming at the mouth and
screaming as they did so. Nor did the
brutcs stop at that When they could they
nipped hold of us-and awful nips they
were-Or tried to steal the meat. One
enormous fellow got hold of the swan we
had skinned and began to drag 1t OF. In
stantly score of others flung themselves
upon the prey, and then began q CHASTITY,
disgusting scene. How the monsters
foamed, and screamed, and rent the flesh,
and each othCrl 1t was a sicGening and
unnatural sight, and one that will haunt
all who saw it till their dying daY--enaCted
as it was in the deep, oppressive gloom,
and set to the uuCeasiug music of the
many-tOned nerve-shaking echoes. Strange
as it may seem to say SO, there was some
thing shockingly human about these fiend-
ish CrcatureS;-it was as though all the
most evil passions and desires of man had
got into the shell of magnifiei crab and
gone mad. They were so dreadfully cOur-
agous and intelligent, and they looked as
if they understood. The whole scene might
have furnished material for another canto
Of Dante's Inferno, as Curtis said.
Il say, you fellows, let's get out Of this
or we shall all go off our heads" sung out
Good; and we We're not slow to take the
hint. Pushing the canoe. around which
the animals were now crawling by hun
dreds and making vain attempts to climb,
off the rocks, we bundled into it and got
out into mid-stream, leaving behind us the
fragments of our meal. and the screaming.
foamiug, sinking mass of monsters in full
possession of the grounds
Those are the devils of the place" said
Cmslopogaas, with the air Of one who has
solved Il problem; and upon my word felt
almost Inclined to agree with him.
UmslopogaaS' remarks were like his Ak
very much to the point
What to be done next" said Sir Henry,
blankly.
Drift. I suppose, I answered; and we
drifted accordingly. All the afternoon and
well into the evening we fioated on in the
gloom beneath the far-off line OF blue sky,
scarcely knowing when day ended and
night began, for down in that vast gulf the
difference was not marked till at length
Good pointed out 4 star hanging right
above us, which, having nothing better TO
do, we observed with great interest Sud
denly ii vanished. the darkness became in
tense. and familiar murmurinE sound
filed the air underground again" l
wit a